This studio sketch shows two barges manoeuvring past the ‘Float Bridge’ by the sluice further upstream from Flatford towards Dedham. It is at this point that the old river temporarily left the navigable section of the Stour. A stationary horse for one of the barges waits before attempting to cross the barrier which was erected on the bridge to prevent cattle straying. ‘Suffolk Punch’ agricultural horses were specially trained to leap over such barriers or ‘jumps’.

Constable shows only one boat here, with a riderless prancing steed leaping over the barrier.

It may be significant that Constable shows the horse leaping northwards over a barrier on the old river which was the boundary dividing Essex from his native Suffolk.

This drawing shows a willow stump very like that in The Leaping Horse 1825, but seen from the opposite bank. In both images Constable includes Dedham Church.

The moorhen just visible in the lower righthand corner of the finished painting is taken from this oil sketch. It has been frightened by the thundering hoofs on the wooden bridge.

Here Constable introduces the key idea of a rider to urge the leaping horse over the jump. The motif has often been compared with great equestrian portraits by artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Velazquez.

As usual Constable made many changes as he worked on this large sketch and then on the finished work. The willow stump in the sketch, for example, is to the right of the horse, while in the exhibited canvas it is to the left. This achieves an opening up of the vista.

In describing the painting to a prospective buyer Constable wrote: ‘Scene in Suffolk – banks of a Navigable River – barge Horse leaping on an old Bridge. Under which is a flood Gate and an Eli bray. River plants and weeds – a more-hen frightened from her nest – near by in the meadows is the fine Gothic tower of Dedham’. ‘Eli bray’ is probably local vernacular for an eel-trap. A net can be seen trailing in the sluice under the bridge, almost certainly intended to trap eels.